The Raiders climbed off the bottom of the NRL ladder with a tight 23-18 win over North Queensland in Monday night's round four match-up at Canberra Stadium.

Canberra notched its first win of the season with just 15 players against a lethargic Cowboys outfit, which fought back gamely in the second half after a shocking first 40 minutes.

The Raiders were forced to play out the second half with just two fit men on the bench after forwards Nigel Plum (ribs) and Trevor Thurling (ankle) left the field in the first half, and the win leaves premiers Manly as the only side without a win in 2009.

The disappointing Cowboys committed a host of handling errors as they fell behind 20-6 at half-time, but lifted their intensity in attack and defence in the second stanza to run the Raiders close.

With the home side unable to cross the line after the break, North Queensland closed to within four points in the 77th minute when good hands down the left hand side of the field put winger Ben Farrar over the line.

A clutch sideline conversion from Johnathan Thurston ensured a tense finish, but as had been the case all match, a handling error off the ensuing restart handed Canberra victory.

The Raiders' big men laid the platform for the win early in the game, with David Shillington, Joe Picker and Josh Miller each recording 16 hit-ups and combining for 44 tackles.

The other huge positive for David Furner was the debut of boom full-back Josh Dugan, who led all players with 20 carries in a busy performance.

Furner praised the tenacity of his side in playing more than half the match with two men down, and said it was a relief to seal his first win as coach.

"We played a pretty good first half," he said.

"We were down two men on the bench from the 30-minute mark so it was pretty gutsy ... [but] it was a little bit closer than I would have liked.

"The last three games there was a lot of effort put in by the players but we probably weren't getting the results we were after.

"But we worked hard this week and we knew the Cowboys would be a tough side."

The Cowboys coughed up the ball 10 times in total and committed a shocking 34 missed tackles, leading to a huge discrepancy in possession in favour of the home side.

North Queensland coach Neil Henry, making his return after leaving Canberra last season, would have been shocked and dismayed to see his charges afford his old side 59 per cent of the ball throughout the match, and 67 per cent in the opening 40 minutes.

Key Cowboys playmakers Thurston and Matt Bowen failed to impose themselves throughout the contest, while Raiders halves Terry Campese and Marc Herbert combined to set up two tries and both put in flawless kicking performances.

Thurston was particularly disappointing, kicking a restart out on the full, not finding touch on a penalty and seeming reluctant to take on the defensive line as he usually does.

Shocking start

The Raiders enjoyed a whopping 67 per cent of possession in the first half as the Cowboys made a poor start chasing just their second win of the season.

The Raiders crossed for four first-half tries through Nigel Plum, Jarod Croker, Adrian Purtell and Joe Picker to open up a handy lead at the break, but could not kill off the contest in the second period.

The visitors hurt themselves early with a host of schoolboy errors that allowed Canberra to completely dominate from the opening whistle.

Croker's try came off a Bowen knock-on five metres out from his own line, while Thurston committed two key kicking errors that gifted Canberra possession.

North Queensland's only try of the half came off a Raiders error, with Travis Burns crossing after Raiders five-eighth Campese fumbled a grubber close to his own line.

The Raiders could have been further ahead, with Campese missing two regulation conversions and winger Justin Carney spilling a ball just metres out from the tryline with not a Cowboys defender in sight.

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